The Inheritance Book 1

Ch 52 TORO: Averi Ann Matthews [Wednesday, Week Three]

Under the watchful eyes of Miss Em, Averi set up a tabletop easel, paints and canvas. Graehm opened the box for the model Camelot kit he had selected and pulled out the instruction packet.

When the teacher wandered over to another table, Averi said, "When are we gonna go to the TORO?"

"Toro? What? There are no bulls here."

She giggled and snatched the packet out of his hands. In the corner, she wrote 'TOwer ROom' and showed him.

"Oh! Well, I'm not sure. It is risky."

"Aren't you dying to read Annemarie's diary?" Averi whispered. She squeezed blobs of bright yellow and white paints onto a palette. "I am!"

"So you are no longer afraid of her?" Graehm questioned.

"I mean, I am a little wary, but no, not really afraid. It's worth a little nervousness to be able to look into that crystal. You seriously have to check it out for yourself. The liquidy thing inside of it forms into shapes and objects. It's hard to make them out at first because of all the facets, but once you get it, it is so cool."

Averi used a palette knife to mix some of the white into the yellow. Her elbow accidentally knocked the paint bottles over. Luckily, the lids were on. As she righted them, she realized Graehm hadn't responded and glanced up at him.

He was staring at her as if she were insane. "Maybe you shouldn't look at the crystal. I am a little worried about you. Perhaps you've been in isolation too long? Some people don't handle it well."

"Oh, stop! I am not 'some people'." She blended in a little more white. "And I prefer isolation by the way, as long as there are other people around."

"That doesn't make sense." Graehm picked up a pen and scribbled over Averi's writing on his instruction packet.

Instead of wasting time pointing out that she was joking, Averi went on, "I know it sounds crazy, but let me show you what I'm talking about so you can see it for yourself. I know you're a skeptic about supernatural stuff, but you have to admit there's plenty going on that we can't see with our natural eyes. I sense that Trecorin and the area around here have a lot of mystical properties."

Graehm suddenly seemed very absorbed in his kit instructions.

Averi knew he was done talking about the tower room and the supernatural for now. She turned her full attention to her project, swiping a small swatch of the color wash onto her canvas to see if it was right.

A loud bang made her flinch. Bryce had dropped a Lego spaceship box onto the table. Graehm was quick to point out to him that the kit had close to two thousand pieces.

"In the words of my second-grade teacher, 'Yes. I know'." Bryce plopped onto a stool.

Graehm's raised eyebrows suggested that maybe it was a bit much for him.

"Thanks for your concern." Bryce tapped the "14+" on the box. "But I am over 14, in case you didn't know, and an award-winning Lego-artist. Been at it since my Sesame Street days. I've got this."

"The old Bryce is back." Averi sighed as she selected a broad brush to apply the sunshiny color wash to her whole canvas.

"Indeed. You are quite chipper today," Graehm added.

"Chipper? Whatever that means," Bryce said as opened the top flap of the box. "I might say I'm 'good' but that is even a stretch. Let's go with 'okay.' I'll sign off on 'okay'."

"Okay is good." Averi moved the easel closer to her.

Bryce dumped out a pile of plastic bags filled with Legos. "No. Good is a couple notches better than okay."

"I mean, it's good you're okay. What happened anyway?" Averi dipped in the brush and swept it across her canvas in wide, broad strokes. She stood back to analyze the effect. The shade was perfect.

"When? Before when I was better than good? Or later when I was worse than bad? Or now that I'm okay? Never mind, doesn't matter. Long story. I'll nutshell it for you: Nothing happened, then shit happened, then grapes happened," Bryce said.

"Grapes?" Graehm peered over his instruction page at Bryce. "Care to elaborate?"

As Bryce sorted and organized his bags of Legos, he told them about Allora's one-of-a-kind lemonade happy grapes. "And now I know at least one of the crazy awesome things she's growing in that greenhouse. I can't wait to find out what else she's got in there!"

"Hmm. I wonder why she didn't offer me anything when I had my meeting with her," Graehm said in a strange tone that Averi couldn't quite interpret. Resentful? Suspicious? Smug?

"Don't feel bad," she told him encouragingly. "That just means you aced your interview. Bryce and I obviously needed help. That tea she gave me totally helped me remember. It was a magic potion or something, seriously. No other way to explain it!"

"Yes, there is," Graehm said. "Response expectancies. Young or weak-minded humans are particularly susceptible to suggestions made by respected authority figures. On the other hand, it is entirely possible that the substances administered to you contained hallucinogenic or psychotropic properties."

"Uh. Could you repeat that?" Bryce said. "But in normal English this time."

"I speak a little Graehm so let me translate," Averi said. "He thinks that we will believe anything Allora tells us because we are young and stupid. Either that, or we were drugged." Averi glanced at Graehm. "Am I right?"

Before Graehm could respond, Miss Em bellied up to their table again.

"Everything okay over here?" she asked.

All three of them smiled and nodded. Averi didn't mention that she was tempted to brush paint across Graehm's nose.